Computing devices of today have various power mode settings that control when various subsets of the device turn off to conserve power. Laptops typically find these power mode settings to be most helpful, so battery life can be preserved when the computing device is not in use.
More and more services are being designed to follow the user around and communicate with the user wherever they may be. Email, instant messaging, voice-over-IP and other such network services are just a few examples of such services. However, today's world of “always-on” and “always-available” comes into direct conflict with the idea of a reduced power mode that is available on most computing devices. In other words, once the computer enters the reduced power mode, many network services can no longer communicate with the user to achieve the desired goal.